VATS Lobectomy for Clinical Stage IB or II Lung Cancer

Video-assisted or minimally invasive surgery has become the standard approach for many abdominal surgical operations such as cholecystectomy and fundoplication. With respect to the thorax, video-assisted thoracoscopic surgery(VATS) is the accepted technique for biopsy of the lung and pleura and surgical treatment of pneumothorax.Thoracoscopic, also termed video-assisted thoracoscopic lobectomy has become accepted as a safe and effective procedure to treat early-stage non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC). Several pilot series of thoracoscopic lobectomy in stage I lung cancer patients have been reported, demonstrating low complication rates and effective short-term and long-term oncologic results. With increasing experience, the indications for thoracoscopic lobectomy have been expanded. Single and Multi-institutional studies have demonstrated that thoracoscopic lobectomy is not only a safe and feasible technique, but is also associated with decreased morbidity, including shorter length of hospitalization and chest tube duration, decreased postoperative pain, improved preservation of pulmonary function, reduced inflammatory response as measured by lower postoperative cytokine levels, and shorter recovery time, as compared with conventional thoracotomy. The advantages of thoracoscopic lobectomy have been demonstrated in patients with clinical stage I NSCLC, and this strategy has been found to be particularly useful for specific subsets of patients such as the elderly and those patients with poor performance status. The purpose of this study is to know whether VATS lobectomy for clinical stage IB or II non-small cell lung cancer is possible.